The Californias

The Californias was a province of New Spain that existed from 1767 to 1804, with Monterey serving as its capital. In 1683, the Spanish Jesuit missionary Eusebio Kino began the first Spanish attempt to occupy California, but it was not until 1697 that a missionary was successfully established in California. The Jesuits went on to found 18 missions in the Baja California peninsula, and, in 1767, the Jesuits were expelled from their missions and replaced by Franciscans, and Jose de Galvez was appointed as Viceroy. In 1804, the province was divided between Alta California in the north (now in the American West) and Baja California in the south (now a Mexican state). In 1848, the United States acquired Alta California from Mexico in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo following the end of the Mexican-American War.